TAUNTON — As the year’s overdose statistics hit home last month, community leaders convened a public forum to ask why this is happening in the Silver City. As the numbers continue to climb, many are still asking what can be done to stop the growing plague of addiction.

The numbers are clear. Fatal and non-fatal overdoses in Taunton have skyrocketed this year. The totals for the first three months of 2014 now resemble the totals from all of the previous year.

Since that citywide forum, the rate of overdoses in the city has not waned and elected officials like Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. — just back from Washington where he lobbied for increased resources to address the problem — don’t see an immediate solution.

“There is no quick fix,” said Hoye, adding that the state is heading in the right direction by expanding substance abuse services. “It’s an issue that just affects so many families. It’s an issue that certainly they are losing sleep over during the last several weeks.”

The latest available figures on overdoses in Taunton showed that heroin has claimed nine lives in the city in less than three months.

In this city of around 56,000 residents, there have been 132 heroin-related overdoses reported to police in 2014.

Hoye said it’s become obvious that a potent strain of heroin laced with the narcotic pain reliever fentanyl being sold across Southeastern Massachusetts is contributing to the high overdose numbers.

“Unfortunately, it’s resulted in many deaths,” said Hoye, adding that it’s heartbreaking to read recent stories about young people’s overdose deaths.

Hoye offered condolences to the families involved.

Taunton police Chief Edward Walsh said the city’s 2014 overdose statistics tower over similar periods of times from previous years.

Walsh said the city’s preexisting heroin and opiate addiction problem has been exacerbated by the fentanyl-cut heroin.

Walsh also said that, for whatever reason, the heroin in Taunton is sold at very cheap prices. He said that a “hit,” or small bag of heroin, now goes for around $4 and that he often hears dealers give away quite a bit free to get users hooked.

“I think there is a high demand,” Walsh said. “I think the number of heroin users has remained somewhat consistent in last couple years. I don’t think there has been great increase per se. I think there has always been high level of opiate abuse here. A lot of factors contribute to that.”

Walsh said part of the equation is that the entire concept of hard drugs in Taunton changed during the last 10 years.

Page 2 of 3 - “We used to deal with crack cocaine mostly, and heroin was a fringe drug,” he said. “Some people used heroin, but they were the hardcore druggies.”

Walsh said the increased use of the “highly addictive” pharmaceutical painkiller oxycodone during the last decade in the city has often led users in Taunton to the cheaper, more powerful breed of heroin available on the streets.

Taunton has also attracted heroin buyers from throughout New England. A report released in 2010, in the wake of a multi-agency drug investigation called Operation Diesel, revealed that a group of men drove from Vermont to Taunton to pick up cheap, potent heroin at the former Fairfax Gardens public housing development.

Walsh said that his department often finds dealers from outside the city. He said accessible transportation routes, including Route 24 and Interstate 495, may play a role, but he believes it is more related to the low cost, ample supply and high demand created by addicts who already live here.

“We found out that Taunton was a regional center for distribution of heroin,” Walsh said. “Sometimes people were taking it back to their own communities to sell it. We found also heroin distribution is very diffused in Taunton. ... Junkies sometimes will buy a ‘finger,’ or large quantity of heroin, and go back to sell it friends.”

Walsh said that Operation Diesel disrupted that distribution of heroin in Taunton temporarily, resulting in 60 arrests, but that other suppliers soon filled the void to meet the demand in the city.

Walsh said while Taunton has its heroin problem, the city’s upfront approach to handling the issue this year might make it appear worse than it is.

“It’s happening in other communities, maybe even worse, but people aren’t discussing it,” he said.

Walsh also said that the preconceived notions about the city’s heroin users are often wrong.

“Today’s users aren’t the people who you think they are,” said Walsh, explaining that not all heroin addicts are homeless or unemployed. “Heroin users are your next-door neighbors.”

A Marine veteran and Taunton native, James Cohn was 30 when he died of a heroin overdose on Feb. 4, according to his younger brother Darrell Cohn.

He said James was found dead in Fall River after an apparent heroin overdose.

“I say starting point must have been over-medication,” Cohn said. “He got hurt a couple of times. ... Apparently it led to heroin. For an addict, it’s very easy to go from painkillers to heroin.”

He said his family was grateful to everyone who reached out to them after his brother’s death. He explained his thoughts on why heroin may seem like an appealing option for users, linking it to the hopelessness he associates with a depressed economy.

Page 3 of 3 - Cohn said the lack of readily available jobs in the Taunton area leaves some people looking to escape a bleak reality by using hard drugs.

“Basically, with an addict, it doesn’t matter what programs you put in place, they have to want to help themselves,” Cohn said, adding that part of his brother’s problem was landing a job after getting in trouble with the law. “People, when in social despair, turn to vices or escapes.”